


Everything Around Us

by catearphanatic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bickering, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Guns, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Reluctant Partners, alternative universe, slowburn, two dumbasses falling love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2019-11-24 14:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18166181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catearphanatic/pseuds/catearphanatic
Summary: Lance can't stand Keith. Yet, he seems to run across him constantly.Keith isn't extremely fond of Lance either, so it is no surprise that neither of them is exactly grateful when they're teamed up against their will to investigate a series of mysterious murders and disappearances. Together they are roped into a conspiracy that leads them back, deep into the history of their city.





	1. One Meow Away From Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> Hello :3
> 
> This is my first Klance ... and overall fanfiction and idk let's see how this goes!
> 
> I've written a lot of original works before (all of them unfinished haha) and I kind of stopped writing after I got more into drawing but it feels really nice to write again and I feel fanfiction is a way to do that with less pressure.
> 
> Still, I'm super nervous and I'm also rambling, anyway I hope you enjoy!

Lance positioned his rifle.

He looked through the visor with his other eye closed and aimed. His target was a next to bald man in about his thirties. Currently, his back was turned towards Lance and he was deep in conversation with two other guys, who Lance presumed to be his underlings. They were all dressed in casual clothes and Lance was grateful that they were meeting up in one of the more abandoned parts of the town since he would have never been able to spot them in a big crowd.  
Additionally, they were standing out in the open surrounded by an abundance of rundown buildings. This would be easy.

Lance himself was kneeling on one of the roofs, leaning his arm and rifle on the rusted metal of one of the waist-high walls, surrounding the roof. Ending tips of vines were curled beneath his feet, residing there together with his duffel bag and some plants he had ripped off to create a free platform for him to comfortably sit.

Nobody had lived here in a long time.

Now that Lance was steadily aiming at his target's head, he loosened his muscles and gently lay his finger against the trigger. He took a deep breath and calmed himself.  
Tensing up would only make him miss his mark.  
He was just about to pull the trigger as a noise made him flinch back from his visor and whip his head to the right.

“You're not very observant if it took that long for you to notice me”, Keith said and smirked at him.

Lance scowled at him. He was leaning against the wall, his elbows draped on the rusty metal cover, nonchalantly spinning a set of keys around his finger.  
God, he hated Keith.  
Of course, this guy would show up. That was just his luck, wasn't it?

“Whose keys are that?”, Lance asked, not even trying to disguise his disgust.

“Yours”, Keith said with a cocky smile and chucked them at Lance without further notice.

Unable to get his hands off the rifle in time, the keys flew into him and dropped down onto the ground.  
Anger flamed up inside Lance as he took the gun from its position, just so he could pick up his keys and let them slip back into the pocket of his Jersey.  
He couldn't believe this was happening. He didn't have time to waste on this lowlife. If he didn't hurry, the target would end his conversation and leave alive instead of a bodybag. Who knew when he would get a chance like this again?

“What are you doing here? I'm kind of in the middle of something!”, Lance snarled and gestured at the gun in his hand and the conversing men on the ground.

“Well”, Keith clicked his tongue. “I noticed you were about to shoot my boss in the head, so I thought why not come up here and have a chat.”

He shrugged, which infuriated Lance even more.  
Still, he was surprised. As much as he couldn't stand Keith, he never would have thought that he'd consort with drug dealers.

“So what?”, he asked almost challengingly. “You're going to stop me?”

To Lance's disdain Keith actually laughed. “No, not really.”

Lance turned away and repositioned his rifle on the wall. Again. For the second time today, he laid his eye against the visor, correcting his aim. If he had to he would shoot his mark with Keith blabbering away in the background.  
Lance had taken more difficult shots before. He would even go as far as to say he would hit a target like this with his eyes closed and asleep.

“I just want to know what he did to earn the honour to be shot by you.”

Lance shot him a scornful look. “He's the goddamn head of a drug ring!” He pilled his attention back on his original task, getting ready to shoot said drug lord. “Shouldn't you know that if you work for him.”

Once again Lance laid his finger over the trigger, steadying his aim.

“Oh, I see the misunderstanding”, Keith interjected. “No, I'm just looking after his cat.”

The moment Lance pulled a trigger a loud meow erupted from Keith's direction, catching Lance off-guard.  
Instinctively, Lance's head whipped to his right, steadying his aim. An ear-ranging shot exploded from the gun and a glass window shattered into tiny pieces.  
Lance's head turned back, checking on his target who was now most definitely staring at him.

“Shit”, Keith cursed, quite accurately articulating how Lance felt, and dropped down behind the wall, still holding the cat that had distracted him.

Two shots were fired, one of them flying past Lance just a little too close for comfort. Lance grabbed his gun and dropped down as well.  
Despite the situation they were in he couldn't help but feel at least some satisfaction at the fact that Keith's cool demeanour seemed to have vanished as he cradled the black kitten against his chest.

Lance wasn't yet worried. He knew that at this range they had few to zero chances of hitting them but he was certain that they were heading their way, changing the odds drastically. If they didn't get off this roof and outside of the building they would be sitting ducks. Better to get out quick before he had to use guns he was less familiar with.  
With no time to store his equipment he simply grabbed his duffel bag, jumped up and sprinted to the door leading inside, Keith, apparently having the same thought, close on his tail. The kitten in his arms whined and Keith shushed it with no real effect.

“Why did you have to bring that goddamn cat with you?”, Lance shouted angrily as they both stormed down the stairs.

“I couldn't just leave her alone in his apartment, could I?”, Keith shouted back.

“Yes! Yes, you could've!”

Keith was ahead of him now, while Lance followed him, slowed down by clutching his rifle and duffle bag in his arms, desperately trying not to let them fall.  
Soon they had conquered the four floors of the building, crashed through the front door and rushed outside. Immediately, they were greeted by more shots fired by the two underlings running towards them from their left. Both of them flinched, hoping that the two weren't able to shoot very accurately while running.

Lance had parked his car right across the street and Keith was directly heading towards it.  
Of course, he knew what Lance's car looked like. Great.

Just as Lance was trying to figure out how to best get his keys out of his pocket without letting anything fall to the ground and whether he actually should give Keith a ride or just let him deal with this mess by himself, Keith moved over to the driver's side.

Lance stared at him. “That's my car.”

As an answer Keith simply grinned, held up one hand and let Lance's car keys dangle from his index finger.

“You thieving son of a -”, Lance shouted as more shots interrupted him.

He threw a hasty look over his shoulder as Keith unlocked the car. The two men were closer now.  
Keith slid behind the wheel and Lance threw open the opposite door, throwing his equipment inside before he entered himself.  
Keith drove off with a screeching start and accelerated, pushing the gas pedal to its maximum.  
The kitten, uncomfortable with Keith's sudden leg movement, hopped off his lap and into Lance's.  
He scowled at it.

“You're unbelievable”, Lance hissed in Keith's direction, who glanced into the rearview mirror, to see if anyone was following them. Lance turned around to check as well, unwilling to trust Keith's judgement, and could only make out two shrinking figures in the distance, throwing their arms up in frustration.

“Hey your hands were full with your guns”, Keith said now, concentrating back on the street. “You would have gotten yourself killed if you'd tried to unlock the car by yourself.”

Lance turned back around and angrily sank into his own front seat, crossing his arms in defiance.

“Don't even dare pretend you care what happens to me! And it was your dumb cat and you who brought us in this situation in the first place.”

The kitten on his lap meowed protestingly and Lance scoffed back.

“I can't believe you stole my keys twice!”  
“It's your own fault for letting me steal them”, Keith said and the cat curled up into itself, making itself comfortable on Lance's legs.

Lance was in no way happy with this situation.

“I'll give them back, I promise!”

Lance rolled his eyes and unwillingly started to pat the cat. He was still mad at both of the unwanted guests in his car but he had to admit that the kitten was maybe, just a little, adorable. In a way. At least it hadn't willingly conspired against him. This was all Keith's fault.

“So, please explain to me how babysitting a cat for a drug lord leads to making me miss my shot and almost getting us both killed?”, Lance asked, continuing to stroke his hand over the kitten's balck fur. “What's her name, anyway?”

“Juniper”, Keith answered, glancing at her for a second then diverting his gaze back onto the deserted road. “I'm currently debating if I should keep her or bring her back to Mr. Flinton. I mean on the one hand he'd be pissed if he comes home and Juniper is missing. And I mean he knows who I am and where I live. We're practically neighbours! He'd know where to find me if I don't return her. But then again what if he saw me up there with you? He'll kill me on the spot!”

Lance shrugged. “Sounds like he'll kill you either way. Does it really matter why?”  
Keith huffed, seemingly still debating his predicament.

“And you didn't answer my question.”

“I hope you mourn for me when I die!”, Keith said instead of giving Lance an actual answer.  
“Hah! I will celebrate!”

Lance couldn't care less for Keith's problems. Keith thought he was clever by trying to distract him with a story but Lance knew he was trying to avoid telling him why he'd been on the roof today.  
God knows why.

Lance wondered if he should pry more. After all, the guy had cost him a lot today. If he hand't shown up, Robert Flinton would be dead by now and neither of them would have to worry about either of their current problems.

“Just tell me”, Lance said, looking at Juniper who was now purring underneath his hand. “I really don't understand why you won't tell me. I deserve an explanation! At least!”

“Fine”, Keith sighed in resignation, and drummed the stirring wheel with his fingers. “Mr. Flinton lives near me, as we've already established, and of course he's the head of a giant drug ring in the city. I would have never tried to get close to him but Shiro begged me to go and see if I can find out the identities of more people involved, so I offered to look after Juniper. He doesn't deserve her, to be honest.”

For a moment Keith took his right hand off the steering wheel and absently drove it over Juniper's head as she pressed it closer into his palm. For some inexplicable reason she seemed fond of Keith.

“Anyway, I was following him today and I saw your car outside the building, went in to find out if you were there for Mr. Flinton or someone else and … you know the rest.”  
Lance sighed. He didn't really care for Shiro and his troupe but more often than not they got in his way, which was just annoying. Of course, Keith was the worst of them.

“Where do you live? I'll drive you there”, Keith said now and Lance instantly snapped up again.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!”, he burst out. “I'm not telling you where I live! The moment you find that out, I'll never get rid of you! I already have enough of seeing you as much as I am now!”

This time it was Keith's turn to roll his eyes. “I think you misjudge how much I enjoy our encounters.”

Lance huffed and looked outside the window, realising that he didn't know the neighbourhood they were driving through. They had crossed from a more abandoned part into a livelier sector of the city. It was far from crowded but at least this meant they were slowly coming closer to the centre of the city. Lance thought he'd recognised some of the buildings and he'd rather drive an extra hour searching for the right way than ask Keith for directions.

“Whatever”, Keith said now. “I'll just drive a little further so I don't have to walk so far and then I'll get out, don't worry.”

Lance just nodded in defeat and stared out of the window, trying to figure out where they were. Silently patting Juniper, he refused to speak another word until Keith left the car. Hopefully it would be a long time until he had to see Keith again once all of this was over.

***

Keith stood at the curb of the street and watched Lance drive away.

He had driven closer to his apartment so he wouldn't have to walk much. He'd left his bike parked in front of the building when he'd tailed Mr. Flinton, mostly because he knew he wouldn't be able to carry Juniper safely while driving. That being said it was still quite a long way back home. He could have driven further but Lance's silent glares had made him leave the car earlier than planned.

He didn't really understand why Lance hated him so much. Sure, he didn't like him all that much either, but his attitude was mostly the result out of Lance's determined dislike of Keith. Ge was sure that they would at least get somewhat alone if Lance would stop treating him like the worst human to have ever existed.

He sighed and looked down at Juniper who was now tucked inside his jacket where she had snuggled up against his chest. He had grown attached during the few days he had taken care of her and his heart ached at the thought that he would have to return her.

Keith had always gotten along better with animals than with humans. Maybe it was just his personality that aggravated Lance so much. Who knew.  
He would retreated out to the desert long ago, had it not been for Shiro. He constantly talked Keith into staying in the city and Keith didn't know how he kept being successful in keeping him here. He missed his house and Kosmo, who he couldn't bring here with him simply because of his size. Keith decided to drive out there for the weekend. It'd been too long since he'd returned already but Shiro had kept him busy with the police force.

The sun was already setting as Keith recognised his building in the distance. Juniper stuck her head out of the jacket and meowed at the sight of her home. Keith smiled down at her.

“Ok, ok, I'll bring you back”, he told her. “But don't worry. If Mr. Flinton doesn't kill me, I'll come visit you all the time.”

Together they arrived at the slightly run down house and walked up the stairs to Juniper's home.  
Mr. Flinton had given Keith a spare key but he decided to knock first. During the time Keith had taken to get back home, the drug lord surely had come back home. Keith had left a note clarifying that he was out on a walk with Juniper, so as long as Mr. Flinton hadn't recognised him on the roof with Lance nothing else bad was about to happen today.

Keith bumped his knuckles against the wooden door, but instead of meeting the usual resistenace, the door swung slightly open. Weird.  
He was sure he had locked it when he had left with Juniper just a few hours earlier. Even if Mr. Flinton had returned, this seemed odd to Keith.  
He had used his key to search the apartment first chance he had gotten, but Mr. Flinton had been thorough enough to not leave any vital information about his organisation out in the open. Someone so careful would never leave his front door open, inviting the world in.

Cautiously, Keith stepped into the apartment, keeping Juniper tightly tucked inside his coat. She began to squirm in an effort to get out, but Keith was too tense to notice.  
As he moved further into the flat he kept one hand around the kitten and moved the other towards the knife attached to his belt. Was there an intruder here?  
Carefully, he checked each room for other signs of a break-in but nothing seemed to be amiss.

Keith was about to drop his guard as he realised there was one room left he hadn't checked.

Mr. Flinton's office.

Juniper meowed silently but it felt to Keith as if she had screamed into the seemingly abandoned apartment. Subconsciously, tightening his grip around the cat he moved forward in anticipation. Suddenly he was overcome with an inexplicable fear of what he would find in the study.

Keith pushed the door open.

In that moment Keith could do nothing else but stare horrified and breathless at the mess in front of him. This was too much for him.  
Had he known this was what he would find tonight he wouldn't have returned at all.

With shaking hands he kept Juniper close as he fished his phone out of his back pocket and called Shiro.


	2. The Body

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to bring my computer to get repaired, so I had to rush this chapter a bit! 
> 
> Idk I might have taken a day longer to work on it but oh well ...
> 
> (Imma miss my computer so much T^T)

Keith was sitting at the kitchen table in his apartment.

It was now completely dark outside and he had turned on more or less all the lights in the flat.  
Across the hall was a swarm of police officers buzzing around his neighbour's flat, looking at the crime scene.  
Keith sighed, and let his head slump onto the table top. He looked over to Juniper, who was sitting next to him, and watched her drive her tongue over her fur, seemingly unconcerned by the death of her previous owner.

Keith stomach churned as he thought of the body of his neighbour lying lifelessly in his study. The red of his blood soaking into the carpet-floor.  
He closed his eyes but the image stayed.

Juniper, sensing Keith's discomfort, moved a little closer and snuggled up against him. Keith in turn lifted his hand and drove it gently over her small head.

It wasn't like he hadn't seen a dead body before. He'd even watched Lance kill one of his targets once. However, until now it had never seemed this real.  
Maybe it'd been the unexpectedness of the discovery or maybe because it had happened so close to his own home.

Keith knew that it couldn't have been Lance who'd killed Mr. Flinton. Even though there had been enough time for him to turn around, drive to the building and kill the drug dealer there, Keith hadn't found any signs of forced entry. And the crime scene had been way too messy to be Lance's doing.  
Although Keith had refused to inspect the body any further than he already head after stumbling across it, it definitely hadn't been a clean kill. Lance was an unbearable brag but in the end Keith had to admit that his aim wasn't half bad.

Someone knocked on the front door of Keith's flat, violently ripping him out of his thoughts, and he lifted his head. Juniper meowed as he momentarily stopped patting her.  
“Come in”, he called, anticipating Shiro to come through. Keith had left the door unlocked after Shiro had sent him away, promising to come and talk to him later.  
However, against Keith's expectations, the person that emerged from behind the door wasn't Keith's brother but Hunk.

“Hey, Keith!”

“Hey”, Keith answered with a slight smile and fully sat back up, leaning against the backrest of his chair.  
Hunk, taking this as the invitation that it was, came into the kitchen, pulled out a chair and sat down across from Keith.

“Where's Shiro?”

“He's coming soon”, Hunk replied, looking at Juniper. “He just has to wrap up a few things beforehand. He told me to keep you company since he didn't want to leave you alone for too long.”

Even though Keith thought he really didn't need babysitting right now, he was glad Hunk was here. Keith wasn't really close with anyone on the police force except for Shiro but Hunk seemed to always find him in a crowd and come talk to him whenever he was at the station.  
Keith couldn't quite make sense of this behaviour, since he was generally a more closed-off person and he really didn't think there was anything Hunk would gain by being his friend.  
He didn't actually know if Hunk thought of him that way but in the end just knowing that he was willing to talk to Keith made him kind of … happy.

“Anyway, how are you doing?”, Hunk asked now, playing with Juniper, who was nuzzling her head against the palm of his hand. Keith drove his hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh.

“Honestly, I don't really know. Still in shock, I guess”, he admitted. “I didn't really epect to find him dead, you know?”

Hunk nodded. “I know how it feels. I actually threw up the first few times.”  
He continued to pat Juniper, who had fully warmed up to him now. “But you get used to it.”

“I don't really want to get used to it”, Keith said with a heavy sigh. “I'm honestly glad I didn't let Shiro coax me into joining you. No offence, but I really don't want to relive this.”

“None taken”, Hunk laughed. “It's a shame, though. That way we could see each other more. I miss you when you're not there.”  
Keith shrugged, crossing his arms in front of his chest, smiling slightly. “I still wouldn't want to do it professionally.”

As an answer Hunk pulled out a container from one of his pockets. “Do you want a cookie? I baked them myself.”

Keith looked at the small box in Hunk's hand and Juniper moved closer, now even more interested. Keith had already fed her shortly after finding Mr. Flinton's body and had moved most of his cat supplies over to his apartment, correctly assuming that he wouldn't need them anymore. She'd had enough cat food for today, but apparently the dinner hadn't been enough for her.

“Do you just carry them around all day?”, Keith asked cruiously as he took one of them and bit into it appreciatively. Contrary to Juniper, he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.

“No”, Hunk said and smiled almost apologetically. “Shiro looked quite panicked when you called and I thought you were probably in a worse state. So I brought them just in case.”

Keith took another biscuit and practically wolfed it down. Hunk's food was always great.  
Almost every time Keith ran across him, Hunk had something edible with him and it amazed Keith every time anew at how good it tasted. He still thought that Hunk should have opened up his own restaurant instead of joining the police force, but every time he had brought it up Hunk had brushed it aside and disregarded the idea.  
“You're a great person, I hope you know that.”

“Pfsh”, Hunk made in disagreement. “That's normal!”  
“It really isn't”, Keith laughed and took another cookie. “These are really good. Thank you!”

“No problem! I'm happy you're feeling better.”

Keith was just about to answer as the front door opened unexpectedly and both Hunk and he flinched in surprise. Both of them looked at Shiro coming into the apartment and Keith cursed under his breath at the lack of his brother's ability to knock.

“We've finished up and the guys are about to leave. You can go, too”, Shiro said directed at Hunk, who nodded and stood up.

“Bye Keith! I hope we'll see each other soon!”  
Keith responded with a little wave and Juniper meowed, frustrated that the big warm hand had disappeared.

“Bye, Juniper”, Hunk said and waved one last time before he vanished through the door, joining his colleagues outside.

As soon as the door had fallen shut behind him, Shiro turned towards Keith. “Come on, you're staying with me tonight.”

Keith frowned at him. Shiro had absolutely no confidence in him and Keith was sure that at least part of the reason he constantly bothered him to join the police force was simply so he could keep an eye on him as if Keith were still a twelve year old, who couldn't be left alone for two seconds.  
But he wasn't a little kid anymore and while he was grateful for all the things Shiro had done for him, it was time to realise that Keith didn't need him anymore.

“I don't need you to take care of me”, Keith said defiantly. “I'm fine by myself, you know.”

Shiro sighed and drove a hand over his tired face. This entire day had been exhausting and filled with murder. Every since last week the number of people killed in the city had sky-rocketed and now his little brother had found one of them right next to his apartment. Everything seemed to be getting out of hand recently and Shiro didn't feel like he had the energy to deal with Keith's resistance.

“This is not up to debate”, he said. “I won't let you stay next to a crime scene. Especially with an unidentified murderer on the loose.”

Keith stood up, brushing some of the left-over cookie crumbs from the table. “Oh, come on. There were no signs of struggle in the entire apartment apart from the study. And it wasn't an actual break-in. He clearly knew whoever murdered him!”

“I really don't care”, Shiro said, meaning every word if it. “Please, Keith? It would make me feel better.”

Keith let a slight groan slip. He knew that fighting this wouldn't help anything. In the end Shiro would get his way, no matter what Keith said to him. And … if he was honest with himself, he didn't feel completely comfortable staying here alone either. Not that he would ever admit that to Shiro.

“Fine, whatever”, he huffed. “I just have to pack beforehand. And Juniper's coming with us.”

“Fine”, Shiro said, looking at the cat that was sitting on the table with a hint of suspicion. He'd never been extremely friendly with animals and he couldn't say that they usually liked him, either. “But then let's go.”

***

Lance didn't immediately drive home.

This would have been his last hit for the day but thanks to someone he'd have to drive back to headquarters and report the interference. Lance felt better now that Keith was out of his car. The entire thing was still a big mess but at least now it looked somewhat fixable. He'd report back on what had happened and make sure it was clear that absolutely none of it was his fault. Pidge would track down Robert Flinton again and give Lance a new location for somewhen next week. He would finish this job. Maybe a bit belated but he would finish it nonetheless. No damage done.

Lance was certain that this wouldn't disturb his daily life much in the long run. This was still salvageable. He smiled.  
With Keith out of the car, Lance's mood had lifted tremendously. He even recognised some of the neighbourhood, making it easier for him to navigate his way back to his work place.

He still wished Pidge would hurry up with the so-called GPS she was working on. According to her description of it, he would never have to find a way by himself ever again. The entire thing felt a little too good to be true, but he had seen Pidge at work and he'd already underestimated her once.

A mistake he certainly wouldn't make again.

With the problem of still not exactly knowing his way, it took a little longer to arrive at CoranCorp than usual and so the sun had already started to set as he arrived at the parking lot. He stopped in front of the boom barrier and showed the security officer, who was seated in the small cabin beside him, his badge and he was let through. At this time on a Friday not many cars were left in the lot.

As he stepped out of his vehicle, he could make out Matt's car somewhere in the middle of the parking space, which meant that Pidge was still in as well.

Lance headed inside and made his way through the maze-like corridors he had familiarised himself with when he had first started working here. Since he had come in from the back it was quite a long way to Allura's office and he hurried along. The sooner he could get home, the better.

Usually, he wouldn't mind coming back in this late except that he had plans to visit his family this weekend. He was already late by now and he could only imagine the agitation of his mother if he took much longer.

Slightly panting he finally reached Allura's office only to find the door closed. She had to be in a meeting.  
Even thought Allura was the CEO of the company, she usually left her door open to create a more friendly work environment and encourage questions and feedback. Lance hardly ever came across it closed.

“Hi, Lance!”, her assistant, who was seated at a desk right outside the office, greeted him with a big smile.

“Hi, Romelle”, Lance answered and gave her a small wave, smiling at her obvious enthusiasm. “Is Allura in?”  
“Yes”, Romelle answered. “She's currently meeting with one of our smaller business partners, but I'll tell you that you're here.”

“Thanks”, Lance said and absent mindedly played with the colourful post-it notes on Romelle's desk. “Tell her it's important.”  
She nodded and took the post-it notes from him to write down his remark. “Alright. The meeting might take a bit longer but you can wait here if you want to.”

“No, I think I'll go see how Pidge is doing. Just tell me as soon as Allura is done!"

Pidge's office was right across the hall from Allura. She used to have it a few floors down but a few years ago Allura decided Pidge deserved a place higher up thanks to her technical genius.  
Unlike Allura, Pidge had a habit of keeping her door shut most of the time to encourage people to leave her alone, as she so nicely put it.

“Great!” Romelle gave him a thumbs-up.  
“Tell her hi from me. She always ignores me in the morning and she hasn't come out since.”

Lance nodded and left for Pidge's room. He knocked and after a quick “Come in” he opened the door. Pidge swivelled around in her chair so that she was now looking at Lance. As he closed the door again she leaned far to her side and enthusiastically waved at Romelle, who was now in her line of sight.

“I haven't had the chance to say hi to her today”, Pidge explained with a shrug as soon as the door had closed. “Yo.”

“Hey”, Lance answered. “How are you?”  
“Bored”, Pidge said and rotated back and forth in her chair. “Matt's working late, so I'm stuck here.”

Lance let himself fall onto the couch across from Pidge's computer and let out a deep sigh. He felt his muscles loosen and his body slowly relaxed. This was the first time in hours he wasn't consumed by stress and it finally seemed like he could breathe again.

“I really don't understand why you refuse to drive home with your parents. Wouldn't you get home earlier that way?”

Pidge rolled her eyes and stopped her rotating to look at Lance while she talked. “They just start lecturing me all the time and I already have enough of that at home. I wish they would just let me learn how to drive a car by myself but noooo, I'm too young!” Pidge lowered her hands that she'd used to add air quotes around too young. “Anyway”, she said, changing the topic, “why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be with your family by now?”

Lance sighed again. “There were some … complications during my last job.”  
Pidge grinned now, smug, and repositioned the glasses resting on her nose. “What have you messed up now?”

Lance frowned at her. “I didn't mess up anything!”, he declared angrily. “This was all Keith's fault.”

“Of course”, Pidge answered and Lance could tell that she was making fun of him. “Will I ever get to meet this mysterious Keith or is he actually just someone you made up to push the blame on?”

Lance gasped at the accusation and Pidge's grin grew wider. “How dar– Why would I make him up?! He's 100% real and just as annoying! I _wish_ he were imaginary.”  
“Ok, ok”, Pidge laughed, raising her hands in defence. “I'm just saying no one of us has ever met this Keith. And he seems to always turn up when things go wrong in your stories.”

Lance scowled at her. “Things go wrong because he turns up.”

Pidge only shrugged and turned back around to her computer and started typing with a speed Lance could hardly follow. “Which of your targets do I need to track down again?”, she asked and Lance told her about Robert Flinton and his drug ring. He had fully intended to only give her the information she needed but apparently he was still so riled up from the incident that he almost unknowingly switched over to what had happened on the roof.

“And then he just pulled a cat out of his coat! I mean couldn't he just leave her at home? That was so unprofessional of him.”

Pidge released an annoyed sigh. “Lance! First of all, if his job is _to look after the cat_ , I think it's safe to say he's being professional if he _looks after the cat_! And anyway, I don't actually care about this Keith as much as you do!”

“I _don't_ care about him!”, Lance exclaimed enraged.

“Whatever.”

He was just about to elaborate on how much he didn't care about his nemesis but he was interrupted by Romelle opening the door and sticking her head into the room.  
“Allura's meeting is over and she wants to talk to both of you”, she said and Pidge groaned. “Also Pidge, Matt is about to finish up, so he'll be waiting for you in the parking lot.”  
Pidge threw Lance an angry look. “Great. Now I need to stay here even longer. Couldn't you have just shot the guy?”

“Believe me, I wish I could've shot Keith”, Lance growled.

“I mean Flinton!”

Lance rolled his eyes as both of them stood up to follow Romelle, who ignored their bickering. This was pretty normal to her. She had decided a long time ago that trying to make peace between Pidge and Lance wasn't worth the trouble and she knew that both of them secretly enjoyed their childish fights.

Together they headed over to Allura's office and Romelle closed the door after ushering them inside.  
Allura was sitting at her big glass desk with Coran, her personal adviser, standing a small distance behind her.

“Please, sit down”, Allura said and both of them each grabbed a chair across from Allura and did as they were told.  
Lance opened his mouth to start explaining his situation but his boss stopped him with a hand gesture.

“You don't need to tell me about Robert Flinton”, she started. “He's the reason I called you both in here.”

“How do you know about Lance's mess?”, Pidge asked, suddenly sounding extremely interested, which earned her another scowl from Lance and Pidge stuck her tongue out at him.

“He's dead.”

Both Lance and Pidge stopped whatever wordless conversation they had had going on and looked at Allura in surprise. This was the one thing Lance hadn't expect to hear.  
“Well, that's great then, isn't it?”, Lance said. He was a bit sour that he wouldn't get the money for the kill now but did it really matter who killed him as long as he was dead?

“Not really, Lance”, Coran chimed in and pulled at his trimmed moustache. “This poses a huge problem for us.”

“There have been seven people found dead this week alone. They were all on our watchlist but none of them were killed by our people”, Allura explained in more detail. “Before now we always managed to clean up before any real police investigations could be launched, but Flinton was found dead in his apartment by the little brother of the police chief which … complicates matters.”

“Indeed”, Coran continued. “We wanted to deal with this individually, you see. Involving the police in our matters isn't exactly in the companies best interest.”

“Hey, doesn't Keith live near there?”, Pidge said now, interrupting Coran, and Lance felt proud that Pidge had listened to his elongated rant.

“I bet it's his fault”, Lance said. “He distracted me so he could kill Flinton himself later.”  
Pidge looked at him patronisingly. “Ok, that seems highly unlikely, Lance”, she said but Lance disregarded the comment.

“I still don't really understand the problem. Isn't it good that they're dead?”

“The problem isn't that they're dead”, Allura said now, pulling her long white her over her left shoulder. “We don'd know who killed them and if it wasn't one of our employees they are a potential danger. But what worries me most is that the kills definitely weren't random. There's a system behind the kills and I just can't figure it out.”  
Allura drove her hand over her creased forehead and pushed a few strands of hair out of her face.

“The thing is we don't know enough.”

Pidge nodded, probably already thinking about how to best go about figuring out the pattern behind the kills Allura seemed so worried about.

“I have contacted the chief of police Takashi Shirogane and he's agreed to meet with me over the weekend to discuss the matter.”  
“I hear he's an extreme workaholic”, Coran said and leaned forward with a glint in his eyes. “A quality you two could start implementing into your work ethic!”  
Pidge rolled her eyes and Lance looked at Coran unsure if the remark had been meant as a joke or a threat.

“Anyway, I just called you both in to tell you to get some rest before next week. I'm assigning you both to this and it'll be top priority until further notice.”  
Lance and Pidge nodded and were dismissed.

Whatever this new assignment was, Lance didn't really care.  
For now he had a family to come home to.


	3. Motorbikes and Birthday Presents

Keith put on his leather jacket and left his room, entering the sunlit kitchen where Shiro was currently attempting to make breakfast.

“You know the heat on this is way too hight, right?”, Keith asked, looking over Shiro's shoulder at the burnt eggs.

Shiro cursed and quickly turned down the heat in a failed attempt of rescuing the food. Disregarding Shiro's disgruntled murmurs, Keith grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard, a box of cereal, and a carton of milk and sat down at the kitchen table behind Shiro.

“Where's Adam?”, he asked as Shiro scraped together the burnt mess and threw it into the bin and poured the milk into the still empty bowl. Adding the cereal last had begun as a way to annoy Shiro who had gotten furious at this way of preparing breakfast when Keith had been younger but soon had become a regularity for Keith and now it seemed ludicrous to do it any other way.

“I didn't see him anywhere yesterday and you normally don't even try to cook! Is he visiting his family?”

Shiro and Adam had moved in together about two years ago and ever since then Keith had never been able to escape a lecture from either of them.  
Shiro sighed, turned off the stove completely and sat down across from Keith with an apple.  
Something near to impossible to ruin with Shiro's cooking skills.

“We broke up three weeks ago”, he said and Keith looked up in surprise, the spoon full of milk and cereal falling back into the bowl. This was the one thing he hadn't expected Shiro to say.

Adam and he had been together for four years now and they had seemed inseparable. Of course, they had fought from time to time, but nothing had seemed so bad that it could have justified a break-up. Maybe them pushing back the date for the wedding should have been a sign but Keith had never been very receptive in these kind of matters. And in any way, he hadn't been involved much with Shiro's personal life ever since he had moved out. Even this was the first time in months he'd been over at his brother's place.

“I'm sorry, that sucks”, Keith said and pushed the bowl of cereal over to Shiro. It wasn't much of a consolation but the only thing Keith could think of right now. He'd never been that good with words. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don't know”, Shiro said, taking the cereal and stirring the milk with the spoon. He watched intently as the cereal flakes soaked in the liquid and started to turn soggy. “I guess, I got too invested with police work and didn't put enough effort into the relationship. At least that's what Adam said. He said he couldn't keep watching me work myself to death.”

He shrugged.

“I mean, it's true that I haven't been home much but it's not like I can just take some time off.”

Keith watched Shiro watching the cereal, searching for something that might cheer him up. He didn't like seeing his brother this way. To him Shiro had always been the strong one, seeing him now, vulnerable like this, made him extremely uncomfortable.

Shiro shrugged again and finally let go of the spoon. “I guess it's better that way. Now I can fully concentrate on work like I need to, especially with all these people disappearing and dying left and right!”

“There have been more murders?”

His neighbour hadn't been the only one?  
Of course, deep down Keith knew that people died all the time and Mr. Flinton hadn't been a rare outlier, but just knowing that there were more deaths the police were concerned with made his stomach turn.

Shiro nodded, obviously relieved to talk about work again, even though he had hardly put his feelings into words before. As much as he preached to Keith how important it was to talk about one's feelings and open up to others, he himself wasn't that good at it. Something, he knew, he should be working on to be a good role model for Keith.

“Yes. Over the last month there have been a string of murders and disappearances that seem to have the same M.O. and especially this week there was a rapid increase in victims. All the crime scenes match the one in the apartment across from you, as far as we could gather at least.”  
Shiro drove a hand over his face and through his hair in an attempt to chase the tiredness away. Maybe he would make himself a warm cup of coffee later.

“What makes the whole thing more difficult is that CoranCorp had definitely a hand in it. They keep swiping the crime scenes of evidence before we can get to them. You finding the body finally gave us the chance to really investigate it for once.”

Keith nodded, focusing on one loose thread hanging off his jacket. He knew Shiro couldn't stand CoranCorp and their methods, even if they were practically running the entire city. Keith didn't particularly care about what the company did or not. All he really wanted was not to get pulled into this mess.  
It was already enough that he'd had to find the body right next to where he lived.

Still, he couldn't help but agree with Adam about Shiro's work schedule. He needed at least one weekend where he just let go and relaxed for once. Working 24/7 simply couldn't be healthy. Sure, Shiro was an important part of the police force but they could manage without him. And the stress had already gotten more to Shiro than he liked to admit. For god's sake, his hair had already partially turned white!

Keith feared that with Adam gone now, Shiro would through himself even more into work than he already had. He assumed that the only reason he'd even left work to go home and sleep yesterday was because he had felt a bigger urge to take care of Keith.  
But, as much as he knew that Shiro needed someone to keep him from overworking, Keith wasn't it.  
He had his own problems.

“I'm going to drive out into the desert today”, Keith proclaimed, changing the subject before Shiro was able to rope him back into helping him.

Even though he got paid for the jobs he did for the police department, often more than what he'd make somewhere else, it was too much of a commitment for Keith. He'd much rather continue doing small tasks here and there to earn his living.

“I need to see if Kosmo is doing alright and want to visit my dad”, Keith said as he stood up. “But I can't take Juniper with me, so you'll have to take care of her over the weekend.”

Shiro immediately forgot what he had planned on saying next and looked up at Keith as if he'd lost his mind.  
“Are you serious?”, he asked. “I have absolutely no idea how to take care of a kitten!”

As if she'd known someone was talking about her, Juniper strode into the kitchen, yawning, meowed and pressed herself against Shiro's legs.

“Don't worry!”, Kith said, waving his hand dismissively at Shiro. “You had no idea how to raise a kid either and I turned out relatively fine!”  
Keith grinned as Shiro glared at him. “And anyway, I left you instructions!”

He pointed at the list he'd written the day before after Shiro had gone to bed. “You just need to follow them. It's really not that hard.”

“When are you going to come back?”, Shiro asked now, standing up as well, cleaning the table including the untouched cereal and Keith shrugged, wondering if he should have eaten the cereal before declaring to leave.

“Don't know yet.”

“Promise me you'll be back by Monday!”, Shiro said with a frown on his face. “I know you hate helping out but you can't just stay out in the desert your entire life.”  
Keith opened his mouth to protest both Shiro's request and statement but his brother didn't let him interrupt.

“It's not good if you isolate yourself like this. And I know you have the tendency to! We all need people in our lives and you have friends here.”  
“Friends”, Keith repeated, wishing he would have just left before Shiro could have even thought about giving one of his usual lectures.

“Yes. Me, Hunk, …”

Before Shiro could say anything else Keith lent down to Juniper and drove his hand over her soft, little head. “Be a good kitty”, he whispered towards her, stood back up and said goodbye to Shiro.  
Quickly, he hurried outside before Shiro could say anything else.

***

Not many people were out on the streets this early in the morning and so Keith enjoyed the almost empty road as he was sitting on his motorbike, preparing to leave for his home.

The bike was still standing in front of Shiro's building and Keith was checking a mental list to be sure he really had everything for the weekend. Absentmindedly, Keith pulled his hair into a ponytail, tying the hair tie he always carried with him for emergencies around his dark, stubborn mane to avoid it flying into his face during the drive. His hair had the habit of distracting him from the road and he liked the feeling of the wind on his face without strands of hair flying into his mouth at all times.

He was just about to start his bike up as a car dashed past him with such speed that wind lashed against Keith, whirling up several dead leaves that had been lying on the ground. As he turned around to throw several accusations at the crazy driver, he noticed a woman running after the car, waving her hands in the air, screaming curses into the wind, even worse than he would have used.

Some of them sounded as if they were in Spanish and Keith wondered how someone of that descent had gotten into this area.  
CoranCorp didn't prohibit people from living where they wanted to but people had the tendency to crowd towards their own groups.

The car vanished into the distance with an enormous amount of noise and the woman came to a panting stop right in the middle of the road.  
Keith watched her standing there for a good half minute, panting, trying to catch her breath, and staring after a car that was already long gone.  
After some time, she took a deep breath, turned to her right, and stalked to the sidewalk across from Keith. She sat down on the curb and placed her face into her hands in defeat.

The few passerbies that were outside at this time of day ignored her and continued walking as if nothing had happened. All of them apparently too busy to ask if the woman, who looked so small now, needed help.

Keith thought about simply driving off and forgetting any of this had ever happened. He really didn't want to get involved in this but he also knew that not helping the woman would certainly haunt him the entire day, if not longer, and he certainly didn't need more thing weighing on his mind.

As Keith got off the motorbike and walked across the street, he reasoned to himself that this would serve as a good distraction, anyway. If he would drive home now his mind would only keep wandering back to his dead neighbour and his blood, spilled all over the floor. He hadn't slept well that night, his dreams riddled of neighbours coming back to life and the odd ghost of the past coming back to haunt him.  
Maybe helping this woman would help him take his mind off of things.

He reached the woman and let himself down onto the sidewalk, sitting down next to her. The woman lifted her head as soon as his butt had touched the ground and looked at him, tears in her eyes.

Close up he could see the small wrinkles on her face and some grey strands protruding her long, wavy, brown hair.  
Even with the tears in her eyes, she emanated a strong, warm presence.  
Something Keith had always wished for in a parental figure, ever since his own had abandoned him.

“Can I help somehow?”, he asked, pulling his legs to his chest, mimicking the woman's position.  
“I don't know”, she said with a sigh, a quiver in her voice.

“What happened?”

Keith contemplated putting his hand on her back in a consoling way but as much as he wasn't great with words, he was worse at physical contact so he let it be.

“I was getting out of that car”, the woman started to explain. “And he just drove off with my purse still inside! I don't even think he brought me to the right place. I have no idea where I am, I don't have any money _or_ my phone, and I can't even borrow someone's else's because I can't remember their numbers!”  
She sighed deeply. “Maybe, if I start walking now, I can get home by the evening. Except I don't know the goddamn way!”  
The woman took another big, sob-filled breath and let her face fall back into her hands, stifling an oncoming sob.

“I could drive you home”, Keith said with a light shrug, looking away, feeling slightly awkward. “If you want.”

The woman's face emerged out of her hands again and she looked at him unbelievingly. Her eyes had grown big and she reminded Keith a little of a very curious owl.

“I only have a motorcycle, though”, he added as he saw her hopeful expression. “Also, I'm a total stranger, but If you don't mind either of that, I'd be happy to help.”  
He tried a friendly smile and the woman's face now fully lit up.

“Oh, that's totally fine”, she said enthusiastically. “I haven't been on one of those things ever since I was young and at this point I'm desperate enough to try anything!” She grinned widely. “And you seem like a really nice boy!”

Keith couldn't help but let a small laugh escape. No one had ever called him a _really nice boy_ as long as he could remember.

“My name is Keith, by the way”, he said and held out his hand in a greeting and the woman took it.  
“Rosalina McClain”, she said as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you, Keith!”

Now that they had established at least some kind of relationship Keith started to feel more at ease and he could feel his shoulders relax. He hadn't realised he'd been this tense. He wasn't a very sociable person but he felt like Mrs McClain was someone he could warm up to.

He heaved himself up and reached down to help Mrs McClain onto her feet.

“So, where should I take you?”, he asked, as soon as she was standing.

“Oh, if you just bring me into the general are of the Spanish sector, I'll definitely find my way around”, she answered with a light-hearted laugh and together they headed across the street towards Keith's bike.

As soon as they had arrived at the motorcycle, Mrs McClain left Keith's side and rounded the bike, looking it up and down. Keith watched her, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Even if she was just checking the motorbike was safe for her to ride, Keith felt like under investigation and even if it was justified, to be fair Mrs McClain knew Keith now for exactly five minutes, her mistrust in him stung a little.

“How did you end up here this early in the morning?”, he asked now in an attempt to get Mrs McClain's attention back towards him.  
His new acquaintance reappeared from behind the bike, where she had lent down to get a closer look at the tires.

“Oh, it's my daughter's birthday today”, she explained, casually putting her arms on the leather seat. “I was trying to find his really old book as a present. I used to read it to her when she was little and now that she's moving farther away to be closer at her workplace, I thought it might be a nice thing she could remember me by. This is a really nice model.”

For a second Keith was caught off-guard by the remark, unable to decipher what she meant. He hadn't expected her to know anything about motorcycles, much less that she could tell different models apart.

“Thank you”, he said, a little overwhelmed, unsure of what reaction would be appropriate.

Mrs McClain laughed at his loss for words. “I don't actually know much about motorbikes but my husband loves them. We had to sell his when the kids came since we couldn't afford both, but when we were younger he used to take me all sorts of places with it.”

She chuckled at the memory.

“I think he's a little disappointed that none of his children inherited his love for them.” She shrugged. “But what can you do.”

“How many kids do you have?”, Keith asked despite himself.  
Normally he would have never asked but Mrs McClain had the kind of personality that made you want to know such things.

She was so lively and enthusiastic and Keith admired how she could already be this chipper when she had been sitting abandoned at the side of the street near tears.  
Keith found that he really liked Rosalina McClain and he suddenly felt a weird, childish jealousy towards her children.

“Five in total”, she said and smiled at the thought of them.

Keith couldn't imagine what it had to have been like to grow up in that kind of household. He could barely imagine what it was like to have one brother.

“But they're all grown up now”, Mrs McClain said with a sigh. “My oldest is already married with two beautiful children and even my youngest moved out recently. He's around your age. It does make the household a lot more quiet and orderly. But I do miss them sometimes.”  
She was now leaning against the motorbike, smiling at Keith. No one had smiled at Keith that way in a long time.

“Do you have a big family, Keith?”

Almost instinctively Keith snatched up the helmet and handed it to Mrs McClain.  
“My brother lives here”, he said quickly, pointing towards Shiro's building, hoping this would suffice as an answer. The question alone had brought up some painful memories that Keith certainly didn't want to relive.

“Did you say something about an old book?”

“Yes”, Mrs McClain answered in surprise, taking Keith up on the topic change. “Do you know the bookstore? It took me an eternity to find someone who actually sells books that old. What was it called? Something with a V …”

“VLB?”, Keith chimed in and Mrs McClain's head shot up looking at Keith, hope in her eyes.  
“Yes!! Do you know where it is? Maybe you could take me there first!”

As fast as her enthusiasm had come, as fast did it melt away again as she remembered that all her money had been inside her purse that the taxi driver had stolen. Keith could visibly see how the realisation hit her, see her give up on the idea of getting the birthday present for her daughter.  
She smiled at him again, this time unable to hide her disappointment. “It's fine, I guess. I'll just buy it another time.”

Keith smiled at her.  
“Don't worry”, he said. “I'll pay.”

“You'd really do that?”, Mrs McClain asked in disbelieve. “No. No, I can't let you do that! You're already nice enough to drive me home. I don't want to cause more problems for you!”

“I'd be happy to”, Keith assured. “And anyway, I know the owner. You'll never guess what the name stands for.”  
How weird that he had met the one woman searching for the one bookstore he had a personal relationship with.

Fate was a funny thing.


	4. Inconvenient Encounters

Keith parked the motorcycle a few metres away from the bookstore and Mrs McClain loosened her arms around his waist. He had expected her to hold on much tighter but she had been surprisingly relaxed all throughout the ride.  
She took off the helmet and with it a big breath of fresh air.

“Whew”, she exclaimed. “That was quite something. I haven't sat on one of these things for over 30 years now.”  
Keith smiled slightly, not really knowing what he was supposed to reply.

“Honestly, I can't believe the taxi driver even brought me halfway near to where I wanted to go”, she stated now and Keith nodded in agreement. If he'd planned on stealing her purse from the beginning why not drive her anywhere? After all this area was miles away from where Mrs McClain lived. But who knew, maybe the idea had come to him in the spur of the moment and hadn't been that well thought out.

The bookstore was maybe ten minutes away from where Shiro lived if you drove and even though it was such a short distance the neighbourhood seemed completely different. Shiro lived in one of the newer parts of the city and his surrounding area was littered with high buildings, containing several flats for a multitude of families. The bookstore was in one of the older areas that CoranCorp hadn't renovated yet. The smaller houses and shops were maybe a bit run-down but they weren't as damaged as those in other parts of the town. Even though the neighbourhood looked a little shady on the first glance, it was absolutely charming as soon as you got to know your way around.

 _VLB_ was positioned at the corner of the street right in front of Keith and Mrs McClain and as they were approaching the little shop, its label started to come into view.  
Mrs McClain was now talking to Keith, desperately trying to guess what the acronym could possibly stand for.

“ _Very Loud Bookstore_.”  
Keith laughed. “I don't think people would be happy with a loud bookstore!”

“Hmm”, Mrs McClain made, thinking hard. “What about _Verified Language Books_?”  
Keith shook his head again.

“Oh, come on! It can't have such a weird name that I can't guess it! Maybe _Vastly Liquified Books_? _Very Linguistic Books_ … or _Vacant Lustful Bookstore_!”  
“Oh my God!”, Keith exclaimed shocked, only beginning to imagine what a bookstore with such a name would sell.

“Fine. Is it called _Voltron Legendary Bookstore_?”

“What's a Voltron?”, Keith asked genuinely confused. He'd never heard that word before and he couldn't believe that it was a common collocation to bookstore.

“Oh, it's this really nice children's cartoon my granddaughter watches Sunday morning”, Mrs McClain explained. “I watched a few episodes with her and it's very colourful. I don't really understand it, though. There's too much happening for me to follow.”

“Sounds fun”, Keith said with a shrug. He'd never really watched television as a child and even though Shiro had owned a TV Keith had never used it.  
Growing up in the desert had taught him how to entertain himself without any constant outside stimulation. He'd always been much more of a reader, anyway.  
They arrived at the bookstore before Mrs McClain could suggest any other names and Keith opened the door, automatically ringing the bell hanging above the entrance.

“Hi!”, he called out.  
There were noises coming from the back, the rustling of paper and faint thuds of boxes being put down. Then there were steps and the shop owner stepped into view and behind the counter.

“Keith”, he said in surprise.

“Hey, Adam”, Keith greeted him with a smile as Mrs McClain entered the shop behind him. “I just heard about the break-up. I'm really sorry!”  
Adam scratched his neck uncomfortably and looked away.

“Yeah … Why – why are you here?”

Keith could tell that he, understandably, wasn't someone Adam had wanted to talk about the break-up with and so he decided to make this as quick as possible. The shorter their visit, the less uncomfortable it would be.

“I'm helping a … friend”, he said with a side glance at Mrs McClain who seemed undisturbed by this categorisation. “She wanted to buy an old book from you.”  
Adam smiled and immediately his shoulders loosened up. He visibly relaxed now that he could focus back on work and Keith was struck by how similar he was to Shiro in that regard.

“Of course”, Adam said, a lot friendlier now. “That's what we sell here, after all. You called me yesterday, right? I put the book aside for you, let me just find it.”  
“Thank you so much”, she said to Adam as he vanished behind the counter to look for the book.

“So, Keith,” She turned back to her new friend. “Will you tell me now what _VLB_ stands for? I can't think of any more names starting with those three letters and it is _driving_ me insane!”

Adam emerged again, gently putting the book on the counter.  
“Adam, tell her about the name”, he told his almost brother-in-law, who just sighed at the mention.

“I still hate the origin, if I'm honest. It was such a crime against literacy”, he answered with a slight shake of the head. “But I guess it's part of our history. Should I wrap it? On the phone you mentioned it would be a present.”  
Mrs McClain nodded gratefully. “That would be very kind.”

Adam moved over to the gift wrapping station positioned right next to the counter and Keith watched him pull out a few samples of gift wrapping paper.

“Anyway, the original name of the bookstore was _Venomous Library Books_ ”, he recounted. “It used to belong to this really angry guy … I think his name might have been Sendak? Or something similar. I can't really remember. He hated books. Absolutely despised them. Especially fiction!Which pattern do you prefer?”

Mrs McClain pointed at a colourfully striped one, attentively looking at Adam waiting for him to continue the story. Adam cut part of the wrapping paper and placed the book on it.

“So, he really didn't like books, right, and so he simply decided to steal as many library books as he possibly could. If you ask me, he wasn't right in the head.”  
He put some tape on the gift paper and searched through a box filled with bows.

“He ended up stealing so many that he didn't have space for them anymore, so he sold them to people as fuel for fire!” Adam rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Makes you wonder about the security at the libraries”, Mrs McClain said and Adam nodded.

“I think they just didn't expect anyone to steal books that were free to rent”, he said with a sigh. “Anyway, the bookstore was a miserable place but my family bought it and we turned it into something nice. I once tried returning some of the books to a library near here, but they wouldn't take it anymore. Too damaged, they said.”

Keith had visited some of the libraries in town, although it had been some time since he'd last went. Maybe he could pay one of them a visit again. He still could remember the wonderment that had filled his entire body the first time he had stepped foot into one. He missed that.  
Now he had grown old and it felt like all the magic had been drained off the world.

Adam shrugged and placed a lilac bow on top of the present. “So I specialise in old and antique books now.”  
He handed the present over to Mrs McClain who carefully took it and pressed it against her chest, almost unbelievingly. Keith was sure that she hadn't even been able to think she would get back home this morning.

“That'd be 23,47”, Adam said with a small smile.  
“I'll pay”, Keith chimed in and pulled out his wallet form his back pocket.

“Thank you so much again”, Mrs McClain said, directing her gratitude towards both Keith and Adam. Keith's heart warmed at her smile. Deciding to help her had been the right call after all.

“No problem”, Keith said as he handed the money to Adam, who nodded politely in Mrs McClain's direction. “Adam, again, I'm really sorry about the break-up! But just so you know, I think you were in the right.”  
Adam nodded again, this time a little resigned, and Keith took this as his hint to leave.

It was sad to know that this might be the last time he would come here. He had spent a big part of his later childhood here and a wave of nostalgia hit him unexpectedly. He hadn't expected to have such an emotional bond to this place.  
So, with a weirdly heavy heart, he turned towards the entrance when Adam held him back.

“Keith, wait … I know I'm no longer engaged to Shiro, but don't feel like this means you can't come here anymore!”

Keith's face spread into a smile almost involuntarily. Even though he hadn't known how much the bookstore meant to him until now, he was happy that his brother's break-up didn't mean he would have to avoid it forever.

He waved Adam goodbye and both he and Mrs McClain left the bookstore, both of them feeling a little bit better than when they had entered.

As soon as the door fell shut behind them she asked. “So how do you know him?”

Keith could see by her expression how desperately she wanted to know what had happened between Adam and Shiro but tried to hide her curiosity out of politeness.  
“He's my brother's ex-fiancé”, Keith explained, trying to no get too deep into Shiro'r relationship problems. As much as he liked Mrs McClain, this was something he didn't need to discuss at lengths. “They actually met in that bookstore. Shiro always used to take me there and buy me books. I used to read a lot.”

“You don't anymore?”, Mrs McClain asked.

“I don't really get to it nowadays”, Keith answered. In the last few years it seemed like something had always come between him and reading and Keith promised himself that he would start again. He missed the feeling of completely immersing himself in a fictional world where all his problems could fade away. There still were more than a few unread books at home. Maybe he could read some of them to Juniper.

“Alright”, he said, clapping his hands together as they reached the bike. “Spanish sector now?”

“Yes”, Mrs McClain answered, putting the book down for a second to put on the helmet. “Just bring me somewhere nearby and I'll find my way home!”

***

Getting close to Mrs McClain's home hadn't taken all that long now that Keith knew she was comfortable on a motorcycle. Even if he hadn't gone as fast as he could have, he definitely had accelerated more than towards the bookstore. Mrs McClain had held onto him tight and as soon as she'd been able to recognise the neighbourhood, she had tapped Keith on his shoulder and he had temporarily parked the bike so she could tell him where to go next.  
Like this they had navigated their way back towards Mrs McClain's home. They had found a parking spot a little farther away and were now walking back to it.

At first Keith had tried to resist Mrs McClain's invitations to her daughter's birthday party and leave for the desert but the woman had been so insistent that finally Keith had given in.

After all he had done for her she couldn't just let him go like this. At least that's what she had said.

Keith certainly didn't think she needed to repay him in any way but in the end he had agreed to it simply because she hadn't let him refuse and Keith hadn't wanted to make a big scene right there on the sidewalk.

The longer Keith followed Mrs McClain, the more he could tell that her neighbour was quaint and lovely. There were a lot of one to two story houses, which was a rarity for this city and something Keith hadn't really come across until now. He'd even noticed a playground with kids running around, wildly laughing, and playing on the monkey bars.  
Keith hardly knew his way around this part of town and so he tried to pay as much attention as he possibly could so he would be able to find back to his bike once he'd left Mrs McClain's household.

“Don't be nervous”, she said with a laugh after Keith had asked her a third time if it was really okay that she was bringing him with her. “They're all absolutely lovely! They'll welcome you right in!”

Keith nodded, still unsure. He was a difficult person to be around.

He wasn't the most sociable person and even though over time he'd learned how to best act around new people, meeting now all eleven of Mrs McClain's relatives felt overwhelming.

“I just … I never had such a big family”, he admitted but Mrs McClain waved away his concerns.

“Oh nonsense”, she said light-heartedly. “You'll love them and even if you feel uncomfortable, there's still me. And there's cake!” She laughed at her own joke. “You know, my youngest, Lance, he always talks big about what a charmer he is but in the end he's just as self-conscious. Don't worry, I bet you'll get along great!”

“Wait, did you just say Lan-”

“Oh, look we're here!”

Keith stopped walking. They had arrived at the house and his heart was beating out of his chest as Mrs McClain rang the bell. Keith thought about how she would have to change the lock, now that her keys had been stolen. He still remembered when Shiro hadn't been able to find his and they'd had to have the lock changed. It'd been such a hassle and Adam hadn't been able to get into the apartment for almost a month because Shiro kept forgetting to give him the new keys. Both of them were a mess but, at least back then, they had been a mess together.  
In the end the keys had turned up in some pocket Shiro hadn't thought of looking at.

The door was opened with a forceful swing and a man around Mrs McClain's age appeared behind it, his expression immediately lighting up as he saw his wife.

“Rosalina!”, he exclaimed, both loudly and full of emotion. “What took you so long?”  
Mrs McClain fell around her husband's neck and tightly pressed him towards her, relishing in the hug. “So much happened! I won't believe how happy I am to see you!”

Mr McClain gently stroke over her back, lovingly comforting his distressed wife.  
Keith looked at the scene, uncomfortable in his own skin, not really knowing what he was supposed to do with his hands.  
He'd known he shouldn't have come. This had been a huge mistake.

The two adults separated again and for the first time Mr McClain seemed to notice the strange boy standing behind his wife. “Who's this?”

“This is Keith”, Mrs McClain said with a smile towards him. “He helped me after the taxi driver stole my purse! I invited him for cake and I need to give him back the money he spent for me!”

“Oh no, no, no”, Keith stepped in now, refusing Mrs McClain's offer. “You don't have to pay me back! I was happy to help.”

Mr McClain laughed and put a hand around Keith's shoulder, pulling him inside in a welcoming way. “Thank you for helping my wife”, he declared. “Of course, you have to celebrate with us!”

“Oh, Pablo, he has a motorbike!”, chimed Mrs McClain as she followed them inside, closing the door behind her, obviously relieved to be back in the familiarity of her own home. “I know you've been looking for someone who shares your interests!”

Mr McClain nodded enthusiastically and patted Keith on the back, who felt a little more relaxed by the warm welcome and the prospect of having a potential common interest with Mrs McClain's husband.

“Come on, you two”, he said now with a bright smile. “The other's are in the living room. We already started celebrating because we didn't know how long you would take!”

“ _Mami_?”, a familiar voice suddenly called out through the hall as Mr McClain led them along. “Are you back? I need -”

The owner of the voice rounded the corner, coming into the corridor and suddenly all of Keith's prospects of having a good time vanished.  
Of course, this had to be _his_ family.

This was just his luck wasn't it?

Lance stopped dead in his tracks, freezing at the sight of Keith between his father and mother.

Neither of them hadn't expected to run across each other like this. Especially after the unpleasant encounter they had had just the day before.  
It didn't take long for Lance to recover.

“What the _fuck_ are you doing here?”


	5. This Birthday Party is Too Small for the Both of Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd add the names of Lance's family here so there's no confusion:
> 
> Rosalina - Lance's mother  
> Pablo - Lance's father  
> Veronica - Lance's sister  
> Rachel - Lance's sister  
> Marco - Lance's brother  
> Luis - Lance's brother  
> Lisa - Luis' wife, Lance's sister-in-law  
> Nadia - Lance's niece  
> Sylvio - Lance's nephew

“What the _fuck_ are you doing here?”

“ _Mijo_! Language!”, Lance's mother called angrily and Lance automatically ducked in his head. He hadn't meant to swear in front of his mum but Keith had been the last person he'd expected or wanted to come through that door today.  
“You two keep talking”, Rosalina said to Keith and Pablo, then grabbed Lance by the arm and rather violently dragged him back into the kitchen from where he'd come from.

“What is he doing here, _mami_?”, Lance asked, anger boiling through his veins. He couldn't believe Keith was here. It was bad enough that he disturbed Lance while was working, now he had to infiltrate his home, too?  
He had felt safe here, surrounded by his loved ones, so this felt like an even bigger betrayal by the universe than normal.

“He's …”  
Lance glanced outside the kitchen at his dad leading Keith towards the living room, both of them laughing. Even more anger started to curl up inside him and he hardly could push down the urge to storm outside and throw Keith out himself.  
“... _evil_!”, he hissed back at his mother, who stared at him with a look that would slay the fiercest warrior.

“Don't be stupid, Lance!”, she reprimanded him in a quiet and calm voice, which seemed to give her words even more power. “I would have never been able to get home at all without his help!”

Lance looked at his mother and he knew that there was no sense in arguing with her. She'd always had the upper hand in their arguments and even moving out and earning his own money didn't change anything about that. Still, Lance hated how protective his mother had gotten over this boy she had met just a few hours before.

“Are you sure he wasn't the reason you got stuck there in the first place?!”, Lance asked.  
“Now, that's ridiculous! He's our guest, you need to be nice!”

“But …”, Lance protested.  
“He's staying. End of discussion!”, Rosalina said with authority, making sure that this really was the last word in the argument. Lance knew that the chances of convincing her to send Keith back to where he'd come from were slim, but he simply couldn't imagine a family gathering with him there. At least not one Lance would enjoy.

“Fine”, he said. “But the second he does something fishy, he's out of here!”  
“Just go in there and at least pretend to be nice!”, his mother said not even acknowledging Lance's protests.

Seeing that there was no use in arguing any further, Lance angrily stomped out of the kitchen and towards the living room.  
He could hear laughter coming from the room and already Lance felt his annoyance levels rising. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe his reactions were unreasonable but he couldn't simlpy let go of all the negative emotions Keith conjured whenever Lance looked at him.  
The same negative emotions that arose right now as soon as he saw Keith seated in the middle of the couch right between Lisa and Rachel. Lance unconsciously ground his teeth in discontent.

His niece was standing on Keith's lap, trying to feed him birthday cake.  
Lance let himself fall onto a chair with a good view on his arch nemesis, leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest, determined to demonstrate is adamant disapproval.

He stared at Keith laughing as Nadia smashed the small piece of cake in her hand against his cheek instead of his mouth and smeared it around.  
Lance watched Lisa apologise profusely for her daughter as she grabbed her off Keith's lap, who shook his head with a dumb smile.  
Lance's frown grew deeper the longer he inspected every aspect of Keith's stupid face. Seeing him this happy somehow made Lance feel even worse. God, he wished he could just throw him out of the house.

“You know if you stare at him all day long, I'll _have_ to assume you have a crush on him”, Veronica whispered into his ear and Lance flinched up.  
“I don't ha-”, Lance hissed, enraged even by the mere assumption. “Shut up!”  
Veronica shrugged and threw a grin his way. He seriously regretted sitting down beside her instead of Marco. His brother certainly wouldn't have teased him like that.

“I'm just saying. You spend so much time talking about him at work and now you're staring at him? This is slowly becoming a weird obsession.”  
“What's weird is that he's _here_!”, Lance argued, glancing back at Keith who seemed to be having the time of his life. How could he have this much fun right now?

“You don't actually think that that has something to do with you, right?”, Veronica asked, raising her right eyebrow. Her signature look of scepticism.  
“No …”, Lance answered defensively. “I'm just pointing out that it is really a weird coincidence that mum would by coincidence meet the one guy I hate coincidentally.”  
“You said coincidence a whole lot, there.”

“I will smush cake in your face”, Lance retorted.  
“You wouldn't dare!”

Just as Lance was seriously considering following up on his threat, his plans were interrupted by a louder conversation from across the room.

“Do you have any siblings, Keith?”, Lisa asked as her daughter was climbing onto Keith's lap and Lance's ear pricked up. “Nadia seems to like you a lot.”  
Keith shook his head and Lance noticed that he'd wiped off some of the cake on his cheek. Now there was only a small speck of cream near the left edge of his lips.

“I have an older brother but I don't meet many children”, he explained and tried to stop Nadia from climbing further up onto his shoulders. A futile attempt as Lance knew from experience.  
He looked over at Sylvio, who was sitting on Luis's lap, a bit more suspicious of the newcomer than his sister. At least _someone_ had some sense in this family.

Right in that moment Lance's mother entered the living room and everyone greeted her with a warm welcome. They were all happy to have her back.  
It was pretty late in the afternoon and they had all wondered where she had gone for so long, only near the brink of worry.  
If her accounts were true, she wouldn't even be here now hadn't she met Keith. Maybe he should stop being so hard on him. At least for today.

Lance shook his head. What was he thinking? That, right there, across the table was his rival. His sworn enemy. It was all good and well that he had brought his mother home, but Lance didn't owe him anything. Least of all hospitality.

“Veronica, I'm sorry I couldn't be here earlier”, Rosalina said now, hugging her daughter. Veronica smiled and rose slightly from her chair to hug her mother back.  
“It's fine”, she said. “Keith already told us what happened. I'm just happy you're here at all.”

Their mother smiled and handed Veronica a wrapped present as Veronica sat back in her chair. Lance watched Veronica carefully remove the gift paper. He missed the days of unpacking presents by wildly ripping off the paper. Missed the inhibitions that came with it. Sometimes, he wished some of his childhood could come back. Just a little. The good parts of it.

He looked back at Keith now. What had he been like as a small boy?  
Probably just as annoying, Lance was sure.

“Keith actually paid for the present, so this is from him, too!”  
“Happy Birthday”, Keith said with a smile, which earned him another glare from Lance.

“Lance”, his mother called now and his attention was ripped away from Keith. “Would you be so kind and bring me an additional chair?”

“Oh”, Keith made and rose up from the couch, gently setting Nadia down in his place. “I really don't want to take anyone's place! I should leave.”  
_Yes_ , Lance wanted to scream. _Yes! Leave!_

“Oh no, dear. Don't be stupid”, she said and waved at Keith to sit back down.  
“Lance will gladly do it!” She smiled.

Lance knew that any protests would neither change this in the slightest nor find any sympathy, so he settled for a small, discontented groan as he lifted himself from his chair.

He had helped set up for the festivities this morning and bringing down one more chair wouldn't have been the end of the world hadn't Lance known that it was for the benefit of one of his least favourite people on this planet. And there truly was hardly anyone Lance couldn't stand less than Keith.

He let out a deep sigh as he left the living room and made his way up the stairs towards his childhood bedroom, where his parents had stowed away some of the things they usually weren't using. Even though they had otherwise kept the room as it had been when Lance had left, it felt weird and unfamiliar to be back and feel all the memories of the time he had spent there come rushing back, coursing through his veins once again.

He entered his old room and for the first time since Keith had arrived Lance felt like he could breathe again.  
He sat down on his childhood bed, his shark blanket still neatly draped over it, and sighed deeply one more time. How had a simple family reunion become so messed up?  
His room looked cluttered now, but it was still the same room.

There was the window facing the end of his bed, where he had looked outside during sleepless nights, desperately attempting to make out the stars without moving too much from his sleeping position.

There was the desk across the room on which he had written homework and love poems for all the girls he had had a crush on during school.  
And maybe the odd boy.  
Like Jason from math class. Or Steve who'd been on the megregior team.

Lance lay down on the bed and looked at the ceiling he had stared at so often, fantasising about making out with Jenny who'd sat next to him at lunch.  
It'd been some time since he'd had a crush on anyone. Maybe it was the job.  
It was definitely keeping him busy and apart from Allura and Pidge he didn't get into much contact with pretty girls … or any girls for that matter.

Life wasn't the easiest when you shot bad guys for money.

Lance abruptly sat back up, feeling the urgency to head back downstairs. As much as he liked relishing in old memories, he knew he couldn't keep hiding up here forever. Who knew what Keith was doing downstairs at this exact moment. He couldn't leave him alone with his family for too long.

Lance pushed himself off the bed, grabbed a chair and lifted it up in the air. The chair was now blocking his view of his feet and where exactly he was stepping. Carefully, he moved forward, trying hard not to stumble over his own feet. Nothing would be worse then him falling down the stairs because of one stupid misstep and breaking his neck. Especially if it was in the benefit of Keith staying even longer in this house.

However, Lance was concentrating so much on his feet and so he wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him, resulting in him violently bumping into something that previously hadn't been there, when he'd arrived upstairs the first time.  
Lance hadn't expected anything to stand there. Had he miscalculated his way to the stairs?

Suddenly there came a disgruntled “Ow!” from the floor and Lance, startled by the sudden noise, moved the chair to his side to see what exactly was in front of him, just to find an angry Keith sitting on the ground, staring up at him.

“What the hell was that for?”, Keith asked, pulling himself up by the banister, rubbing his butt.  
Lance's surprise immediately subsided, morphing into the usual anger. It wasn't his fault Keith had run into him! He shouldn't even be up here in the first place!

“Why are you here?”, he asked defensively. He had had enough. It was already annoying that Keith came and bothered him during his jobs, he couldn't bear it in his home now, too.  
“I was going to go to the bathroo-”, Keith said, but Lance didn't let him finish.

“That's not what I meant! Why are you _here_? In this house?”  
Keith looked at Lance, seemingly surprised at the sudden outburst. “I already told your …”

“Bullshit!”, Lance interrupted again, his anger levels rising even higher. This was officially too much for him.  
“Why do you always turn up where I am? Why do we have to keep meeting, huh?”

Keith's uncertain expression turned into clear annoyance and Lance felt a weird sense of satisfaction at changing Keith's mood for the worse.  
“Do you think I like that I had to run into _your_ mother? Do you think I _like_ having to run across you everywhere I go? Believe me, I'm just as unhappy about this as you are!”

“Oh yeah? That didn't seem like it downstairs!”, Lance countered, his voice rising in volume.  
“Look”, Keith tried. His voice wasn't yet as loud as Lance's, but he could see that Keith's blood was starting to boil. Good.

“I'm just trying to make the best of the situation. And honestly, I think it's pretty rude of you to attack me like this. After all I helped out!”  
Lance was fuming. He hadn't asked for any of this! Why did he have to stand here and let himself be talked down to?

“Why don't you go annoy your own parents? Leave my family alone!”, he exploded, maybe even harsher than he had intended to. He didn't know why he had shouted. He didn't understand why Keith riled him up so much. All he knew was that he couldn't stand another second with him in the same room.

Keith's calmed demeanour turned angry almost instantaneously. Maybe Lance had hit a nerve.

“Do your parents even know what you do for a living?”, Keith hissed, his voice much more quiet that Lance's and yet the words boomed in Lance's head as if he'd screamed them.

The silence between them suddenly seemed deafening.  
If Lance had hit a nerve, Keith had wiped out his entire system.

“Get out”, Lance said.

“GET OUT!”, he shouted after Keith didn't move a muscle.

“Fine”, Keith growled and turned to leave. “I hope we never accidentally run across each other ever again.”  
“Great”, Lance shouted after him. “I never want to see you again at all!”

Keith stormed downstairs and Lance watched as he walked through the entrance, slamming the door behind him.  
For a second Lance stood on top of the stairs simply looking at the door Keith had left through.  
Maybe Lance would have kept standing there for a long time, the chair beside him now forgotten, if Lisa hadn't appeared at the bottom fo the stairs and ripped him out of his trance.

“We heard shouting”, she said up to him. “Is everything ok?”

***

Keith didn't know what to do.

He was standing outside of Lance's house, unsure of where to go next.  
Of course, he could just take off on his bike but the confrontation had left him restless and he didn't know if letting out steam by speeding off into the desert was the best idea.

A younger Keith probably would've sprung at the idea having an easy outlet instead of dealing with all the feelings inside head on, but he'd already gotten into an accident because of the exact pent-up anger once and while there hadn't been much more damage than a broken leg, Shiro had made him promise to never do anything stupid ever again.

Keith doubted that it had been the last stupid thing he'd ever do in his life, Shiro had been so mad Keith likely wanted to try and avoid a similar kind of stupid.  
Still, he couldn't stay here, in front of Lance's house, forever.  
So, instead of pointlessly standing around, feeling out of place and uncomfortable, Keith headed over to the playground, a place where, he suspected, he could calm down a bit before finally leaving.

He walked across the street, which was bathed in the light of the twilight sky and sinking sun. Only a few kids had remained on site, the younger one's already brought home by their parents.

The three boys and two girls ignored Keith, continuing to play amongst themselves, as he walked over to the swing set and sat down.  
The neighbourhood was nice and maybe in a different life Keith would have enjoyed growing up here. He wondered what it had been like for Lance. As he came to think of it, he realised that he hardly knew anything about him.

Their fight flashed back in front of his eyes. Lance's voice echoing in his mind over and over again.

_Go annoy your own parents._

Keith felt the emotions rise inside, too mixed up to fully identify, and the urge to punch something – someone – that usually came with it. The urge to scream and somehow release whatever was inside. Anything to let out these feelings he didn't know how to deal with.

But then Keith remembered what he had said next. The anger in Lance's eyes, mirroring so much of his own.  
Maybe he'd gone too far.

He hated his temper and how he was never able to control himself in the face of intense emotions. It felt like everything washed over him, a sense of powerlessness overcoming, consuming him and suddenly it was as if he couldn't hold himself back anymore.  
Maybe Lance had been unfair to treat Keith the way he did but he understood the sentiment. He wouldn't have been excited if Shiro had invited Lance over unexpectedly, either.

Still, it wasn't his fault that Mrs McClain had dragged him inside the house.  
Keith hit the beam next to the swing and the kids looked up for a second before returning back to their game. For a moment his knuckles stayed pressed against the cool wood before Keith loosened the fist and let his arm fall to his side in resignation.

He knew that he hadn't calmed down enough to get on his motorbike but even if he had would it really make anything better?  
Knowing what waited for him there, he wasn't sure he would be able to bear it today.  
Yet returning home wasn't an option.

Sure, the police had removed the body by now but every time Keith even thought about walking past the apartment his neighbour had been killed in, cold shivers ran down his spine. As much as he liked to pretend like everything was fine in front of Shiro, Keith probably wouldn't be able to close his eyes without seeing all the blood again. The prospects of getting even a wink of undisturbed sleep in his own bed weren't great.

Of course, he could return to Shiro's apartment and see Juniper again. Just the thought of her made Keith's mind feel more at ease. But he'd told Shiro he'd be out at least over the weekend and he wasn't really sure he could handle another lecture about not isolating himself. And the chance of being roped into even more police work by returning prematurely was too high. A chance he certainly didn't want to take. He drove his hands over his exhausted face, releasing a deep sigh.

What a dumb situation.

He should have just refused Mrs McClain in the first place. He'd known that it'd be a stupid idea to go to a stranger's birthday party.

Not that Veronica wasn't nice. All of Lance's family was.  
So why couldn't he be?

Keith was just about to stand up, still not having made up his mind on where to go next, as the rattling of the swing next to him made him flinch. He looked up from the ground, right at Lance, who was now suddenly sitting next to him.

How hadn't he heard him approach?  
Maybe Lance was a better at his job than Keith had given him credit for.

For a second Keith thought about asking why he was here, but even looking at Lance made him unsure if he could talk to him without saying the wrong thing again.  
Better not say anything. He should apologise.

“I'm sorry”, Lance said, at the same time as Keith opened his mouth to try and say the same.  
Keith stared at him. An apology had been the last thing he'd expected from Lance.  
“I shouldn't have been so rude. You were our guest and I was out of line.”

Keith looked at him. His tone felt forced and by the way Lance looked anywhere but at him, avoiding eye contact at all cost, Keith knew Mrs McClain had made him come out here and apologise.  
His pride had to have been seriously damaged.

But even though Lance wasn't sitting here entirely out of his own free will, there was something genuine about the apology.  
The ambivalence was so striking, the way he did seem to feel sorry and still tried to hide the sentiment at all cost was just too ridiculous.  
Keith would have never thought that the boy who got on his nerves so much could be so much more than a nuisance.

Keith, looking at Lance who was feeling so conflicted, couldn't do anything else but start to laugh.

***

Lance had never heard Keith laugh before.

Sure, there had been grins and cocky smirks but he had never heard him laugh this genuinely.  
There was something weird about Keith's laugh that Lance couldn't fully pinpoint and as he stared at the boy who annoyed him almost daily he suddenly didn't seem so bad anymore.

Lance's heart flipped inside his chest. What were these feelings?  
Wasn't he supposed to hate Keith with his entire being? Why didn't he feel the usual negative emotions he conjured, looking at him now?

The last rays of sunlight where vanishing, throwing a dark, mystic light on the playground he had played so often on as a kid.  
Keith was still laughing, tears at the brink of his eyes and Lance's surprise turned back into annoyance. His apology hadn't been _that_ funny.

“I'm sorry”, Keith said, seeing the look Lance gave him. “I just … I didn't expect you to apologise.”  
Lance shrugged and looked away. “Mum made me do it. Any, I guess, … I did act a bit shitty back then.”

Keith looked at Lance, the dim light illuminating his enigmatic, violet eyes.

“You can come back, if you want to. I'll try to be …”, Lance didn't finish the sentence. What? Nice? That was what his mother had told him to say. He wasn't sure he could go that far with Keith.  
“ … not as defensive”, he finished.

Keith smiled at him and Lance could feel the annoyance subside once again.  
Instead of answering, Keith leaned back on the swing and looked up towards the sky.

“I'm sorry, too”, he said, catching Lance so off-guard he almost slipped off the swing. He stared at Keith. Had he just actually apologised? Lance hadn't thought he would even be capable of something like that.

“I'm sorry, I exploded like that and said the things I said, that was really uncalled for”, he continued. Who was this new Keith? If he stayed this apologetic, maybe Lance could even be around him without feeling the urge to scream. “It … it just sucked when you brought up my parents.”

“Oh”, Lance said. He hadn't even considered that that could have been a sore topic for Keith. He had just assumed. “Aren't they good parents?”  
Keith laughed a little. “No, they're dead.”

“Shit”, Lance said. He hadn't expected that. Now _he_ seemed like the bad guy.

“I'm sorry”, he said, this time really meaning it. “I didn't know …”  
“It's fine”, Keith said and swung a bit back and forth, not looking at Lance. “There was no way you could have. I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you. … Sorry.”

“You said _I'm sorry_ three times now”, Lance said with a grin. “What happened to the Keith who wouldn't even apologise for stealing my car?”  
It obviously had been supposed to be a joke but as Lance looked over at his rival, he looked back at him, offended.  
“First of all, I didn't steal your car, I stole your keys! And I didn't steal them, I borrowed! And without me, we would have been _shot_!”

This time it was Lance's turn to laugh. Maybe he had been too harsh.

“Why are you laughing?”, Keith asked, confused, and Lance couldn't help but laugh even more.  
Keith was so weird. He was dumb and arrogant and annoying and then at the same time he was way too serious in all the wrong moments. Where had this level of seriousness been when they'd been running from literal death?

Lance shook is head in amusement.  
“Forget it”, he said a small smile lingering on his lips.

For a while they sat there, side by side, silence having fallen over the conversation.  
The sun had now fully set and only the street lanterns were throwing an eerie light on the playground. Mothers were getting the last remaining children and soon a complete stillness lay over the playground, the only sounds coming from the slight wind rustling through the leaves of the trees and the chirping of the slowly awaking night animals.

“Can I ask you something?”, Keith asked then.  
“Yeah, sure”, Lance said, caught by the unexpected question.

“Why do you hate me so much?”  
Lance opened his mouth to say something but the words got caught in his throat, entrapped there before they could leave his tongue. He hadn't thought it would bother Keith. He hadn't even thought that it was something Keith thought about at all.

“Well, …”, Lance started. Why did he hate Keith?

He always appeared at the worst possible time.  
He always got into the way and every time he did, he acted cocky like he was oh-so-much better than Lance. He was just … annoying. Plain and simple.  
But Lance knew that wasn't the real reason he couldn't stand Keith. The resentment traced back years to the first time they had ever met. To their reunion after their paths had been separated. Maybe disliking Keith had started out with legitimate reasons but, Lance realised, that hating him now had become much more a principal than anything else.

Something he would never admit in front of Keith, of course. So he shrugged.

“You just get on my nerves a lot.”  
Keith sighed, pushing his feet into the sand, his red sneakers partially vanishing in the cold light brown.

“I never actually wanted to come inside”, he said now, apparently changing the topic. “But your mother insisted …”  
“Yeah, she can be a bit intense”, Lance laughed and Keith cracked a smile.  
“She's very lovely, though!”

Lance didn't really know how to answer to that, so he continued to sit in silence, quietly waiting if Keith would continue.

“I'm not that good with people”, Keith said then and looked up at the stars. “When I came upstairs I was planning on sneaking out after.”  
“You weren't even planning on saying goodbye?”, Lance asked, caught in a mixture of wonder and amusement. Keith duck in his head in shame and shook it, slightly.  
“Wow, you really aren't good with people, huh?”

“But then we bumped into each other and … I just got defensive, I guess.”  
Lance looked at Keith who was still staring at the sand beneath his feet.

Now it was Lance who craned his neck to look up at the stars. What worlds had to be up there?  
When he'd been little Lance had dreamt of flying up into space and research every single place he encountered.  
But he'd grown up. Grown out of his dreams, out of childish fantasies that would never come true.  
He knew that he would never visit the stars. No one had ever left earth and Lance was sure he wouldn't be the first.

“Look”, Lance said, bringing his thoughts back to reality. “I still don't really like you, but if you want to come back inside, you're welcome to.”  
He held out a hand to Keith and looked him straight in the eyes for the first time in what seemed like forever.

“Truce?”  
“Truce”, Keith said and took his hand with a smile.

Lance's heart beat once more.


End file.
